Currently, the global environment is seriously threatened. It is essential to find a way to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. This invention is a solution to address this problem and reduce global warming
In chemistry and common usage, a filter is a device that is designed to physically block certain objects or substances while letting others through, depending on their size. Filters are often used to remove solid substances suspended in fluids, for example to remove air pollution, to make water drinkable, and to prepare coffee. Some devices that are called filters may also carry out other processes, such as waste treatment, e.g. a biofilter. Several types of filters are used in chemistry in order to facilitate separation, thereby purifying a liquid or gas. Many filters use gravity, or gravity enhanced by vacuum, i.e. suction, in order to create this separation, often through a funnel-shaped device. Other types of materials may be used to effect separations based on size, similar to filters, such as molecular sieves. The process of passing a mixture through a filter is called filtration. The liquid produced after filtering a suspension of a solid in a liquid is called filtrate, while the solid remaining in the filter is called retentate, residue, or filtrand.
Purification in the chemical context is the physical separation of a chemical substance of interest from foreign or contaminating substances. Amongst the techniques exploited within chemical purification are affinity purification, absorption, filtration, centrifugation, evaporation, extraction, crystallization, adsorption, smelting, refining, distillation, fractionation, electrolysis, and sublimation. Of these absorption describes the removal of a soluble impurity from a feedstream in which a fluid (the absorbate) permeates or is dissolved by a liquid or solid (the absorbent). Adsorption is a surface-based process while absorption involves the whole volume of the material.
Within many environments a variety of impurity gases are present within a circulating, or flow or stream, of gases that are desired. For example, air conditioning systems, heating systems etc whilst primarily designed to move air, primarily nitrogen and oxygen, also move other gases which represent impurities such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulphur dioxide.
Conventionally air filters are particulate filters composed of fibrous materials in order to remove solid particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from the air. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide absorbent filters within such systems in order to address the removal of such impurity components from the circulating air in addition to conventional particulate filters. It would be further beneficial to provide such absorbent filters in a manner which is compatible with commercial and residential environments that represent the majority of such air circulation systems. It would be further beneficial to provide such absorbent filters in formats that are compatible with new system installations as well as retrofitting to existing system installations.
Currently, the desire to alleviate the problem of global warming has resulted in the environmental concern over a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources. The major greenhouse gases contributing to problem are methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and halogens such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Among these, CO2 is the primary contributor to the problem due to its abundance, and is thus a major target for reduction. To reduce the excessive CO2 emissions, there is great interest in capturing CO2 within residential and commercial systems but also for utilizing it as a flooding agent for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in oil sand operations for example. Based on current technologies, the gas absorption with a chemical reaction process using amine is considered to be the most cost effective and has the best proven operability record for CO2. However, the cost of absorption using conventional solvents such as aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine (MEA) is still relatively high. A major reason for the high cost is that the conventional solvents introduce a variety of practical problems including: (i) a high energy consumption for the solvent regeneration; (ii) a high rate of corrosion of the process equipment; (iii) a fast evaporation rate causing high solvent losses; and (iv) a high rate of degradation in the presence of oxygen. All these problems translate into high capital and operating costs. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for these capital and operating costs to be lowered.
A solution of Ca(OH)2, in water, commonly referred to as limewater, is an absorber of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide which is in of itself an inert material such that it may be considered for application within a variety of applications, including but not limited to, residential, commercial, vehicle, factories, and agricultural. Limewater may be disposed of through a variety of means including soil neutralization or pH adjustment which is important for agriculture in order to allow plants to absorb from the soil all the elements necessary for growth. As limewater is a solution of Ca(OH)2 this may be applied to land to reduce soil acidity (raise pH) thereby enhancing uptake of important elements for growth whilst lowering uptake of toxic elements such as manganese, copper, and aluminum. Beneficially calcium supports several enzyme systems within plants as well as improving agricultural yields by improving root and leaf growth conditions as well as microbial activity through the presence of Ca++ cations. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide for a fluid filtering system that is environmentally friendly as the byproduct from the filtering system can be employed within the environment without additional processing, the filtering system itself is reusable.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.